Louisiana legislators hear from more than 100 people wanting state budget cuts restored

The state of Louisiana gives Robin Keleher, of Covington, $258 per month to help offset the costs of caring for her 27-year-old daughter, who has needed constant care since suffering a severe brain injury in a 2003 car accident.

But that payment is now jeopardized by state budget cuts, which threaten to wipe out support subsidies that help more than 1,000 families across the state care for injured or disabled loved ones at home instead of putting them in institutions.

Keleher could not make it to the Louisiana Senate Finance Committee on Saturday, because her daughter, Christina Rayburn, was in the hospital. So she sent her friend, Rebecca Ellis, to plead on her behalf.

Ellis was among more than 100 people who came to the Capitol on a sweltering Saturday to ask for cuts to be restored. They packed the hearing room to capacity and two overflow rooms. Some were professional lobbyists in tailored suits, familiar faces around the Capitol with familiar pleas.

Hospital CEOs, dentists and nursing-home lobbyists came to ask for more Medicaid dollars, warning that further reductions to the health-care program for the poor and indigent would lead to a loss of doctors and hospitals willing to treat them.

But most were ordinary citizens like Ellis, who wanted to tell senators about the real-world implications of the decisions they are about to make.

It's an annual ritual, but one that appeared to take on additional significance as legislators confront the tightest budget in recent memory.

A budget that that was already lean when it came to the Legislature has been cut by another $200 million by the House of Representatives as lawmakers there refused to go along with Gov. Bobby Jindal's plans for raising money through prison sales and voted to restrict the amount of one-time money that can be spent on recurring needs.

Administration officials have said the cuts would force prisons to close and lead to the first layoffs in the 75-year history of the Louisiana State Police. But much of the testimony focused on cuts to health-care services, where the House cut $29 million in state-run programs and another $81 million from private Medicaid providers.

With tax increases off the table and few other money-raising options at their disposal, senators had little but sympathy to offer.

"We will take all this into consideration as we go through the budget deliberations," Committee Chairman Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, said early in the hearing.

Other senators grew frustrated. Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, pressed the hospital association on why it hasn't done more to lobby on behalf of cigarette taxes and other revenue-raising measures that are favored by some Democrats but opposed by the governor.

"You're selective, and I need to see you more," Peterson said. "And I need you to weigh in not just when it's politically popular and when the fourth floor says it's OK."

Then the requests kept coming.

A beauty queen was among dozens of people who asked for the restoration of cuts to mental health services, where the House cut money for outpaient services and a program designed to help at-risk children from being institutionalized.

Haley Elise Ridgel, Miss St. Tammany Heritage of 2011, appeared in her crown and sash to tell senators how severe depression during her early college years left her institutionalized and contemplating suicide before she found help and the proper medicines.

"We can't lose any more lives to this disease," Ridgel said.

Some came not to ask for more but in hopes of preserving their piece of the pie.

Jay Cicero, president of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, asked the committee not to take away money in the budget for the 2012 NCAA Men's Final Four, the Bassmasters Classic, the Essence Festival and other events that is part of the state's tourism budget.

The subsidies are coming from a state fund set up to pay for tourism advertising, and Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne has asked the athletic events and festivals be financed from another source.